LOTR: Battle for Middle Earth

[Spatial]

Oh dear, the LOTR nerds are coming out of the woodwork now

I've picked up my copy this lunch time

[Mardigan8]

Sorry, just going by how it sounds... regardless it will be an alighty battle Helms Deep is the most intense RTS battle I have ever had!! Superb!!

[PeteJ]

I saw the Helms Deep battle at a friends house, it was pretty impressive I must say. I didn't play it, but it looked like an RTS without the borring stuff as you just build farms and they generate everything, so you can just work on the battles.

[Mardigan8]

EXACTLY, the resource collection is as simple as that, build farms and protect them, your resources and upgrades are all funded the same way so it is straight forward. It is an RTS game as it should be... all about the battles and as you seen Pete, those are some pretty sweet battles

[Zapp$ter]

I saw the Helms Deep battle at a friends house, it was pretty impressive I must say. I didn't play it, but it looked like an RTS without the borring stuff as you just build farms and they generate everything, so you can just work on the battles.

Sounds similar to Dawn of War's resource model, which was excellent because it let you concentrate on the battles rather than having to micromanage villagers. This should be decent.

[Mardigan8]

Also, your men are sorted into battalions of around 5. so if you select one soldier or cavalry you auto select his battalion. You can join battlions together to. Lots of nice little tricks to make the massive battles manageable!!

[Harmony]

Any screenshots folks?

[RobDimmock]

yeh if you go to gamespot and type in the game name, there loads

[Spatial]

Had a go last night and its quite good so far

I'm not far in - 3rd quest I think - but I'm not taken with the Fellowship missions really. Its a pain in the arse keeping the Hobbitses alive for me tbh.

I'm also a bit dissapointed that the camera doesn't zoom right in to the action, and that your restricted by the overhead view. It would be nice to see some of the fights at eye level ( or am I missing something ? )

Overall a nice solid RTS though

[Harmony]

I'm also a bit dissapointed that the camera doesn't zoom right in to the action, and that your restricted by the overhead view. It would be nice to see some of the fights at eye level ( or am I missing something ? )

You mean like in Warcraft III ?

yeh if you go to gamespot and type in the game name, there loads

Yup I saw those but I was wondering if anyone had any cool moments in the game to share

[Mardigan8]

Battle of Helms Deep the highlight so far... looks awesome!! It is an entire fortress on the map with you defending it as best you can. When you first see the Isengard army march towards your walls your jaw will be on the floor!!

Everything happens as you would hope... the elves reinforce your army on the walls, it starts raining just like the movie and when the Riders of Rohan charge down the hill led by Gandalf you will be so happy

Fantastic game with great set pieces.

Spatial - You can zoom in on the action and rotate round to get any view you want. Use the number pad to rotate and the mouse wheel to zoom!!

I got nice and close to the fight when Aragorn went mano a mano with the Urukai leader... brilliant!!

[Spatial]

Yeah but it still look at it from top down doesn't it ?

It never gets close enough or level enough for my liking. Wonder if there's a noclip cheat?

[Harmony]

Does anybody have any idea on how to rip the music in the game so you can listen to it on Winamp?